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[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (3 children)

I've heard a very compelling one actually. It's not about ilegal immigration but against immigration in general. I heard it in a youtube talk maybe like a decade ago.

It starts stating that the thing a migrant person wants the most is not having to emigrate. No one wants go have to leave their country because they cannot safely live a prosper life there. So the best outcome would be that the origin countries would change, so people wouldn't have leave everything behind to start a new life abroad. The problem is that the country have to change from inside. And the people leaving a country is usually the most qualified to make that change happen. So by leaving the country they make the change harder or even impossible.

I'm not arguing in favour or against this argument. But I do not think it has anything to do with race whatsoever. As it doesn't even talk about anything related to migrant presence in a receiving country.

[–] cyclohexane@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 day ago

Thanks for your response! You are making an assumption that most or all immigrants wish they didn't have to immigrate. I will answer assuming this is true, though I am not confident it is. But let's go with it.

Changes in material conditions of a country typically occur due to political action. That may be in terms of voting, political movements, or outside forces like war or sanctions. Addressing each of those:

  1. Immigrants typically can still vote, so no issue here
  2. immigrants are unlikely to affect political movements when they are immigrating for reasons like work, study, reuniting with other family, or enjoying lifestyle of another country.
  3. Immigrants have little to no effect on wars and sanctions.

And last, even if what you quoted is true, I bet whoever said it is likely not considering putting the effort of making their country better in the same way they want immigrants to. Maybe that's not one of the worse forms of racism, but it is one.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 0 points 1 day ago

That's a strawman. And some people are just hustlers and want money and handouts and see it as something they are entitled to.

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world -1 points 2 days ago (2 children)

But it boils down to "go back where they came from" which is the favourite of racists.

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

simply because somebody who you disagree with says something, doesn't mean that that argument is bad.

it's like if a nazi says that the sky is blue, then you're going to insist that it's actually green or yellow. that's just stupid.

nazis breathe too. does that make breathing bad? no, you need to agree with it and continue to breathe yourself.

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yeah, but if a Nazi says we should send all the immigrants home, I see it for the racist shit it is.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That's not what this discussion is about, though. It's about illegal immigrants. Not immigrants in general.

[–] daniskarma@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I mean if the axiom is "any negative about immigration is bad = racism" then yes, there's no argument against immigration that could not be racist as those two concepts would be equivalent.

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It's just a lot of clever words for hating foreigners. I'm not fooled by it. Apparently you are. The solution to the infrastructure problems is to build more infrastructure. Not elect a bunch of racists and let hate rule your country. Who gives a fuck where people are from? Racists. That's who. People are people.

The solution to the housing crisis is to build a vast amount of council housing, just like we did post war. It makes jobs. It boosts the economy. It removes the upwards pressure on rent and introduces downwards pressure. Who would pay through the nose for a badly maintained private rental property when there's a brand now council house at much lower rent? Landlords would have to fix the house and reduce the rent or sell - reducing upwards pressure on house prices.

So it's the government selling off council houses instead of building more and money-grabbing rich venture capital landlords that cause the housing problem, not some immigrant.

How do you solve the problems of the NHS? Recruit more doctors and nurses. How? Increase the limit on numbers in medical school in the UK (controlled by the government) and for goodness' sake, make sure all the foreign born NHS and healthcare workers feel happy, wanted and at home, because the one think the NHS can't afford is to lose the immigrant workers! Next, bring health and social care and NHS under the same funding roof, either by putting NHS into local authorities or social care under the NHS. Social care is far cheaper than the NHS and a bunch of old people can't get a place in social care because there's not enough funding for it. If it was the same pot of money, it'd be simple - build a bunch of care homes and ease pressure on the NHS. But how would you staff them? I think you're beginning to see where the answers are but you don't want to admit it.

Who gave you money problems? Rich people running corporations to extract as much money as possible from you. Not some poor immigrant.

Immigrants make our country better. Without them it would be worse. Silly racists can sound plausible without using the word "race" or "skin" or "foreigners" as much as they like but their solutions are just about racism and not about making anything better.

Trump is living out the "deport them or lock them up" policy. If you think that's all going well, move to America. Unless your skin isn't pearly white, because they'll lock you up before you can say "ironic" and certainly before you can say "habeas corpus".

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I think being anti-all-immigration is xenophobic. But it's completely different from being anti illegal immigration or wanting to, for example, stop the immigration of people in certain job markets to help the country's nationals to get jobs.

What I say is:

"It's better to bring in 100,000 immigrants who want to fill needed gaps in our society, contribute, build it up and create more jobs, than 10,000 immigrants who just want handouts"

[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have some fantastic news for you. For some time now, if you enter the UK via an illegal route you already have No Recourse To Public Funds. This means you can't get council housing, you can't get universal credit, you can't get child credit and you're not entitled to free treatment in the NHS. You have to pay for everything yourself.

Why would anyone do that? Ignorance maybe, but usually because it's better than being killed and they already speak some English or have family here.

The last job you got-did you have to supply identity papers such as drivers licence, passport or similar? Employers legality have to establish your right to work in the UK.

So the his news for you is there's already no legal way for illegal immigrants to be paid anything at all in the UK. Automatically destitute. Woohoo. You must be so proud.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)
[–] davidagain@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Lol, that's for legal migrants

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/application-for-change-of-conditions-of-leave-to-allow-access-to-public-funds-if-your-circumstances-change

You can apply online for a change to your conditions if your financial circumstances change and you:

  • have permission to stay on the basis of your family or private life
  • have applied for permission to stay on the basis of your family or private life
  • have permission to stay with a close relative with protection status as a child
  • hold a British National (Overseas) visa
  • have permission granted on any other immigration route and you want to apply on a discretionary basis because your circumstances are particularly compelling

Note the permission thing.

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 1 points 11 hours ago

They only let you stay with your family if you're earning at least £29k